News | ALL DIGITAL Week

GOW17 Results: 3,500 events for 92,000 people in 2,850 centres

April 25, 2017

The eighth edition of the European Get Online Week (GOW) to digitally empower people was celebrated on 27 March -2 April, 2017. It was held under the patronage of Mr Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, and supported by Liberty Global, Cisco, Certiport, and Mozilla Foundation.

The GOW17 campaign challenged Europeans to learn, participate, share and create through thousands of events and activities supporting the digital transformation and its effects. This year, 2,849 organisations in 25 countries engaged over 92,460 participants in 3,506 events and reached millions.

See the GOW17 infographics by Maks vzw

The campaign proved again the necessity to raise awareness about ICT competence and the importance of giving every European digital skills.

In the spirit of the GOW campaign to support the digital transformation, our partners ran an array of events both at national and local levels to include various audiences and support them in their online journeys.

Get Online Week 2017 brought organisations across Europe together to support citizens to be better able to protect themselves online, to understand more about doing government and financial transactions online and to be empowered to create new career opportunities.

To facilitate the campaign at a national level, they had prepared easy-to-use plans and scripts, organized webinars and live broadcasts of their events.

CYBERSECURITY – USE TECHNOLOGY SAFELY

Informative events about personal data, online banking, and safety online
Awareness raising workshops and seminars about the use of social media
Workshops for teachers and parents about secure apps for children and protecting them online
Training in copyright and intellectual property on the internet

KEEP UP WITH E-SERVICES

Events on active citizenship and available tools to engage with local and EU politicians
Seminars how to create Accessible web services
Training on online banking, shopping and digital payments
Workshops introducing citizens to local government services and transactions
Webinars on paying taxes and bills online.

EMPLOYMENT & ENTREPRENEURSHIP – LEARN NEW SKILLS FOR JOBS AND NEW BUSINESS

Training events using CISCO Networking Academy, Certiport, and Mozilla Foundation to teach basic IT knowledge
Workshops for young people to assess their skills on Skillage.eu
Workshops to create online portfolios using YouRock.jobs and boost youth’s employability
Coding classes for kids and teenagers to explore ICT related careers
Other awareness raising events such as conferences, contests, career fairs, awards.

See the articles from different countries about their GOW17 activities on the I-LINC portal National partners collaborated with local and national media channels to raise awareness about the campaign. #GOW17 was a trending topic on Twitter and Facebook, the hashtag brings 1.700 results in search engines. Our partners reported 700 instances in both offline and online national and regional media, hundreds of social media posts, all resulting in over 9 000 000 people reach.

In the eight years of Get Online Week we have reached millions.

Telecentre Europe is grateful to our partners for their dedication and commitment to empower people year after year, equipping them with the skills they need for our ever-changing digital society.

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Let’s Get Online – for Work, for Leisure, for Life!

April 3, 2017

From learning how to spot ‘fake news’ and robotics for beginners to ‘cybersecurity’ and ‘digital skills galaxies’, national partners were involved in 27countries for Get Online Week 2017. The partners ran a variety of workshops, seminars, training sessions and events with thousands of Europeans.

The campaign brought together commercial partners, NGOs and Government organisations in an alliance that helped Europeans gain a wide variety of digital skills for employment and entrepreneurship, to be more safety aware in our ever more complex digital world and to get the most form online government and commercial services. Learn about the GOW17 Alliance and its resources.

This year, I-LINC was the platform to share stories and discuss the Get Online Week events and activities. You can check the Articles and Research section of the platform to get the latest news on GOW17 from our National Partners.

At the forefront of the Get Online Week were the Young I-LINC Digital Changemakers, who were nominated by national partners for their willingness and perseverance in promoting digital skills and tackling digital inclusion.

During the Get Online Week all of them promoted the I-LINC and its resources as well as organised workshops on the Employement and Entrepreneurship. Meet our Changemakers here, learn what makes them changemakers and read about their contributions.

Here is an early snapshot of some of the events and activities that happened across Europe last week:

CROATIA

Centre for Technical Culture Rijeka started this year’s Get Online Week with a comprehensive intro lecture about cybersecurity. They explained the differences between main threats on the Internet: computer viruses, malware and adware – and how to defend yourself from them. Another presentation was devoted to various Facebook functions, especially for senior citizens who are not aware of privacy settings.

Kids were very excited to participate in “Sensors and microcontrollers for beginners” workshop. They learned how to connect various components, their operating principles and how to programme their functions. Older students enjoyed participating in a workshop dedicated do educational programmable robots. A visual programming workshop was also a great success – so great that it was extend for a day longer. The kids had fun with visual programming in Scratch, while making first, easy steps in the huge world of programming. Learn more

SWITZERLAND

GOW was organized for the first time in Switzerland by Ynternet.org Foundation, which is dedicated to empowering netizenship and training on tools for socio-professional development. During Get Online Week 2017, Ynternet.org ran a specific emailing campaign based on the Mozilla’s Core Web Literacy Curriculum and in cooperation with University of Applied Sciences in Geneva held a workshop on Cryptography and Cryptocurrencies.

SLOVENIA

GOW17 in Slovenia was launched with a workshop on the topic of Safety with Online Shopping as a result of the collaboration between Simbioza Genesis, social enterprise and the Institute Safe Internet. During the week across the country, a special focus was put on introducing the 55+ jobseekers to the opportunities on digital jobs and the skills these jobs require. It was also a week of fun e-learning between generations, where the main goal was to empower youth and seniors with digital skills for personal motivation, social inclusion and better career orientation. There were many workshops on e-literacy for seniors offered in primary and secondary schools via Simbioza School project, where young pupils teach seniors how to get online. Learn more

LUXEMBOURG

Luxembourg ran the GOW campaign for the first time thanks to the House of Training, the new player in the in the continuing vocation education market of Luxembourg. The main training event within GOW17 was a workshop Digital skills for companies. The House of Training and SECURITYMADEIN.LU jointly organise this information session dealing with the digitalisation in the business world. It addressed topics such as online communication, e-commerce, cyber security, data protection, electronic archiving, office automation, etc.

SPAIN

The Spanish Association of Telecentres promoted the GOW17 activities among their 11 networks with 3.000 telecentres. Some of the events included:

Job seeking on the Internet and social networks, Mobile Apps for active job seeking and Learn to develop an online creative curriculum organized by the CYL Digital Program;
Connections and debate with Expert on Cybersecurity, Learning to start a business The Technological Literacy Plan of Extremadura
European Incubator for business ideas by Dedalo Foundation in Navarra
Digital identity and personal data protection and Copyright and intellectual property on the Internet workshops in Andalusia by Guadalinfo
Learn more

HUNGARY

Foundation for Community Network organized three webinars for their network

How to address digital generations – cybersecurity for youth and teachers.
How to recognize fake news on the internet
eServices – how to offer 1% of personal income tax for the civil society.

Telecentres provided the possibility for local people to take part in the webinar from the telecentre with the help of a projector – thus people not only learned about the suggested topic, but also practiced joining the webinar.

IRELAND

Fast Track into Information Technology Ltd (FIT) ran various activities promoting GOW17 in public areas along with training in their partner telecentres throughout the country. FIT has also partnered this year with Bank of Ireland. A dedicated team of Bank of Ireland staff, known as Digital Arrows, were shooting across Ireland this week to train people up in technology, social media and safe online banking. Learn more

RUSSIA

Cybersecurity and online safety was also a big topic during GOW in Russia, run by PH International’s IT4Youth project. Thus, the whole day of March 29 was marked as Online Safety Day in Russia. In several Russian cities the IT for Youth project center trainers held the series of online safety training events for school kids and told teenagers about security tools available to use on most computers to further protect their personal information and their computer from viruses, spyware and spam. The young participants were also encouraged to answer the questions about potential dangers they may encounter online, talk about strategies of behavior in various situations, and share the basic rules of etiquette they had learned.

SWEDEN

For seventh year straight, Digidelnätverket organized GOW on a national level. The network Digidelnätverket is a non-hierarchical, independent and democratic networking group working to increase digital inclusion in Sweden.

In 2017, it is supported by KB (The National Library of Sweden), so a lot of activities took place in Swedish libraries with workshops and promo events on all the three topics of GOW17. Learn more

DENMARK

Telecentre-Danmark in cooperation with the DK4 national TV created the programme ‘Get online week 2017 – Digital method of payments, E-banking and security‘. The TV programme was shown on the national television station dk4 every day during the campaign week. It will be repeated 20 times in 2017 on TV and will also be used during training at ICT centres. It is estimated that 1.7 mln people will view this programme and learn about safe digital payments through smartphones.

LITHUANIA

GOW 2017 coincides with European money week, so cooperation with Lithuanian banks association was very useful to Langas I Ateiti – Luthianian National partner – they provided safe e-banking recommendations to all e-banking users and distributed this information through all banks and their clients.

A new group of participants this year were public servants organized in cooperation with Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Social Security and Labour. Over 100 participants attended the seminar “Information security – why should I worry?” run by LiA partners – ATEA company IT auditors. Learn more

CZECH REPUBLIC

National Safer Internet Centre planned both online awareness raising campaign promoting the GOW 2017 objectives and resources including the i-Linc platform and offline trainings and workshops organised in co-operation with AFCEA, Police Academy in Prague and some NGOs working in the field of eSkills development and employment. One of the workshops, on March 31, took place on Smichov high industrial school in Prague. It addressed students with the objective to evaluate the resources promoted during the GOW 2017 campaign as well as to discuss collaborative opportunities offered by the i-Linc.eu platform.

ITALY

On March 28, vocational education school Fondazione AldiniValeriani (FAV) in Bologna hosted the Get Online Week 2017 event “Growing up digital – Chambers of commerce, Google and the digital skills galaxies“. Almost 80 people attended the 3-hour workshop. Most of them were FAV students, along with young people from Emilia Romagna, who were trained on business digitalization, and the entrepreneurs who hosted them for a 6-month practice work in their companies. In the last hour of the workshop, students were offered two games about the “digital skills galaxies”. The first game “Master Internaut” was a quiz to make students understand the world of specific online jobs and terms. In the second game, called the “Galaxies Game“, students were split into groups: each group had to identify a “sectorial galaxy” from a list (beauty, sports, agriculture etc.) which was far from the digital world. Then, each group had to discuss a way to connect the sector to digital, in order to stimulate a new way of thinking about digital skills. Learn more

GERMANY

One big event was Stiftung Digitale Chancen’s stand at the fair for the “Day of Helping Children and Young People” in Düsseldorf. During three days the team of SDC spoke with educators, politicians and stakeholders about good ways to grow up with digital media. On March 29, SDC in cooperation with Telefonica organized an event for senior citizens: “Chances and challenges of the Internet: useful applications” with key note speakers and a panel discussion. Participantes were presented with the results of a study that evaluated what apps senior citizens prefer when they start to use the internet.

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This is just the first glimpse at the events of the Get Online Week 2017. To get a better feeling of the campaign, please also check hashtag #GOW17 and our Facebook and Twitter.

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GOW17 Alliance: international partnership supports digital skills, empowering all

March 24, 2017

On 27 March – 2 April, 2017, 27 national organisations with their 5,000 partners will run thousands of events and activities to bring 73,000 Europeans online and to enhance their digital skills during the eighth Get Online Week (#GOW17).

Since its first edition in 2010, GOW has always been a truly multi-stakeholder campaign bringing together formal and informal training providers, local and national authorities, other public institutions, IT and other industries in a joint effort to show the benefits of digital skills and support the digital inclusion. The campaign has transformed over the years, the topics have changed, but the essence has stayed the same – digital skills underpin every area of our modern internet-connected life and the impact of gaining digital skills, confidence, and security is huge.

In 2017 the campaign highlights the benefits of digital transformation, but also the importance of partnership in helping people and organisations to develop skills and a mindset to adapt to and take advantage of the constant changes.

Telecentre Europe is proud to announce that this year’s Get Online Week is held under the patronage of Mr Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport:

The GOW17 campaign is supported by our corporate partners – Liberty Global, Cisco, Certiport, and Mozilla Foundation. This alliance brings in their expertise and resources, including training and certification programmes, teaching materials with guidelines, lesson plans, videos and other online tools for both trainers and users of various ages and levels of digital skills.

Liberty Global, our long-standing corporate partner, has always seen the importance and relevance of this campaign and over the years has provided their support on raising awareness about digital skills, digital identities and online safety especially to young children.

Thanks to collaboration with CISCO, 25 Networking Academies will be opened by National Partner organisations from five countries, which will teach NetAcad Courses. Cisco NetAcad is an IT skills and career building programme and platform to take and give courses. For telecentres, relevant courses include the Get Connected Course (basic), IT essentials (IT technician) and Internet of things (no prior knowledge required).

Certiport has joined the GOW alliance for the first time this year. “Certiport, a Pearson VUE Business, is excited to participate in Get Online Week”, says Nicholas Haber, Director STEM & CTE. “The topics of cybersecurity, e-Services, employability and entrepreneurship resonate because our trusted credentials help individuals and organizations build bridges between education and careers.”

Within GOW, Certiport presents their IC3 Digital Literacy Certification, a solution for those who plan to pursue a career in IT or simply become more effective with technology. With learning and practice solutions, assessment tools, and certifications specifically designed for a variety of ages and occupations, the IC3 Digital Literacy program is a great way to ensure that students and employees are prepared to succeed in a technology-based world.

Through another new partnership, with Mozilla Foundation, Copyright and intellectual property issues will be highlighted within the campaign events. Their Reform Copyright initiative raises awareness on the need to update and harmonise the copyright rules to make room to create, share, and learn on the internet. Mozilla also offers web literacy courses and an array of free teaching activities developed by teachers, educators and technologists. Each activity includes step-by-step instructions and has been tested in schools, afterschool programs, libraries and community centres around the globe. Whether learning how to code, understanding why privacy matters, or creating openly-licensed web content – it is fun and engaging!

“Mozilla supports Get Online Week EU because people everywhere should have the knowledge they need to tap into the full power of the Internet and to use it to make their lives and the world better”, says Melissa Romaine, Advocacy Network Manager at Mozilla. “This means that everyone needs the skills to read, write and participate online. For this to happen, web literacy must be foundational in education, alongside skills like reading and math. ”

To raise awareness about the campaign, Telecentre Europe’s CEO Laurentiu Bunescu will speak at the European Internet Forum Breakfast Debate ‘Digital skills of tomorrow’ on 29 March. The debate will focus on delivering opportunities for digital skills development to EU citizens – in order to tackle both unemployment and social exclusion. Laurentiu Bunescu says, “We need to make the most of the opportunities provided by Get Online Week, when Europe is again standing up for the importance of digital skills. At the event on 29 March, we will reach out to new stakeholders to partner and to join the campaign, to support more people with the skills they need.”

Are you excited? We certainly are! We wish all our partners a very productive and engaging week.

Let’s get online!

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GOW17: One campaign with many dimensions

February 6, 2017

It is perhaps easy in 2017 to forget that digital empowerment is still vital for society, but 24 National Partners, who have been with us for many previous Get Online Week (GOW) editions, have joined forces again to lead the GOW campaigns in their countries.

Together with their 4,000 partner organizations, including public authorities, IT-companies, NGOs, libraries, and educational institutions, GOW17 National Partners will involve more than 70,000 people and reach hundreds of thousands.

The main topics for this year’s campaign are Cybersecurity, e-Services, Employment & Entrepreneurship. In the spirit of the GOW campaign to tackle the digital transformation, our partners have prepared an array of events both at national and local levels to include various audiences and support them in their online journeys.

Well connected to the scope of the campaign, Copyright and intellectual property will be highlighted within the campaign events, through a partnership with Mozilla Foundation. Their Reform Copyright initiative raises awareness on the need to update and harmonise the copyright rules to create room to create, share, and learn on the internet.

Creating Online CVs and Portfolios in Germany

Most of the partners will address all the topics, at different levels and scopes. In Latvia, LIKTA starts the Week traditionally with the big high level launch event, and devotes each day to a specific topic, such as Digital skills for digital jobs for youth; ICT security day, Digital skills for SMEs. In Russia, the themes will vary from Media Safety and Mobile Learning to Job Online and Internet and Coding training, and activities, developed by PH International and their partners, will include, among others, IT career guidance, video lectures for school kids on start-ups, and an online game on entrepreneurship.

To facilitate the campaign at a national level, partners have prepared easy-to-use plans and scripts. Thus, through and for its 11 networks in Spain, the Spanish Association of Telecentre Networks developed several activities. One of them, Connection and discussion with experts is structured as an action, in which the protagonism is shared between an expert (via handouts) and users. They will talk about a certain subject, providing and clarifying concepts, offering solutions, advice, practical applications.

Promotion and public awareness of the campaign and its messages will have different approaches in each country and will engage society and organisations that work to support citizens with technology.

In collaboration with their major national media partners, Telecentar in Croatia wants to raise public awareness about the key role of digital technologies in a modern society; in addition to online campaign, they will produce and broadcast radio and TV programmes. In Czechia, NCBI will lead an online awareness campaign on Cybersecurity with an emphasis on personal data protection in relation to digital skills for employment. GOW in Hungary will also centre around promotional activities: ComNet will co-operate with the public television to make a 15-20-minute video, covering the topics of online administration, e-commerce, safety online for seniors, digital welfare and improving digital competencies.

Use technology safely

Smartphone training in Hungary

The first theme of the campaign is Cybersecurity. It is increasingly seen as critical for national security and for companies, but perhaps it is most vital to ensure that society trusts technology and that citizens know how to protect themselves.

In Estonia, SWA will promote safe and skillful online behavior and organise a Wise Youtuber 2017 contest. SDC in Germany will hold a webinar for educators to teach them about secure apps for children and which apps collect the most data from them. Programa Escolhas in Portugal will offer a workshop on Cyberbullying. HePIS will run an Online campaign in Greece to enroll over 500 candidates in online courses offered by CISCO in Cybersecurity. In Sweden, Sambruk will focus on understanding, utilizing and protecting one’s eID, thereby fostering trust and confidence in Internet based services and information, as well as in public e-services. Training on copyright and intellectual property on the internet will be conducted in Spain and Russia.

A lot of activities, offered during the GOW, combine the topics of Cybersecurity and e-Services, and security for online banking is put forward in a number of countries. Thus, in Lithuania, LiA in partnership with the association of Lithuanian banks, will organize webinars on safe issues of financial literacy and data privacy, e-banking services online, and direct meetings with experts in the public libraries. FIT in Ireland will run training programmes with sections on ‘Safety & Security Online’ and ‘How to’, showing how to bank online, book airline tickets, get insurance, etc.

Keep up with e-services

E-Services Fair in Sweden

The second theme of Get online week 2017 encompasses not only government services such as tax and benefits, but also personal financial services such as online banking and e-commerce.

Telecentre-Danmark’s goal for the GOW17 is to promote the advantages of digital solutions within e-commerce, new methods of payment with the focus on payment through smartphones and e-health in Denmark, which will be done though trainings and a special TV programme. All those who will be attending GOW events in Romania, will be introduced to a new e-government service, which facilitates online payment by any citizen or company of over 60 types of different taxes. In Macedonia, OtW will organize meetings with representatives from government institutions and civic organizations and persons with disabilities on the accessibility of e-government services.

Learn new skills for jobs and new business

‘Design Thinking for Digital Social Innovation’ training in Spain

Finally Get Online Week will support Employment and Entrepreneurship critical for the ongoing economic recovery across Europe.

The focus of the Get Online Week in Slovenia will be digital jobs. Simbioza Genesis will promote digital jobs among students and the unemployed and offer training on gaining most necessary digital skills for young people who are entering the labour market. In Albania, AIS organize meetings with high school students to show them the benefits of having good digital skills in the most of the today’s career profiles and also to encourage them to specialize in ICT and Computer Sciences. Activities on skills for employment and entrepreneurship in Italy will target secondary school and university students, young professionals, as well as entrepreneurs from micro, small and medium-sized firms. Topics addressed are the new digital professions born around social media, data security, web marketing and how to exploit social networks for professional-business purposes.

Learning coding in Russia

In Serbia, IAN and its partners will put focus on raising awareness about the importance of IT skills and starting with learning these skills from the primary school. IAN will continue with the competition Best Coding for kids, where kids from primary school will learn basics of coding during the GOW and after that compete with their apps for the award.

In Poland, FRSI prepared ready-to-use workshop scenarios for its partners to encourage users to increase their entrepreneurship based on their hobbies. The plan includes a catchy quiz with questions about skills and online sources, a short presentation of local guests, and then participants learn where to find tools or information that will help them share their knowledge and passion and how to monetize it.

Get Online Week 2017 will bring organisations across Europe together to support citizens to be better able to protect themselves online, to understand more about doing government and financial transactions online and to be empowered to create new career opportunities.

Would you like to join? There are a few options to be part of the GOW campaign:

Get in touch with your National Partner and join an existing partnership. See all the partners here.
No National Partner is registered in your country yet? Contact us at gow@telecentre-europe.org, if you want to become one. For the first time, the call for National Partners is open outside of the Telecentre Europe membership!
Organize GOW activities independently and let us know about them.

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GOW 2017 tackles digital transformation for citizens

November 2, 2016

In 2017, Get Online Week takes place during 27 March – 2 April and challenges Europeans to learn, participate, share and create through thousands of events and activities tackling the digital transformation and its effects.

People and skills, not technology, are the most important pieces in the digital transformation puzzle. The digital disrupt produces anxiety, uncertainty and insecurity regarding the future. Rather than resisting the digital transformation, people and organizations must prepare immediately and strategically for a skillset that will perpetually change and evolve.

The campaign activities, trainings, and events will address the following themes:

Cybersecurity: use technology and the internet safely, manage your (digital) identity
eServices: learn to keep up with eServices (eGovernment, eBanking, eHealth, eCommerce)
Employment and entrepreneurship: learn new skills for jobs and for starting businesses

WHY WE NEED GET ONLINE WEEK?

45% of the European population has an insufficient level of digital skills.
37% of the European workforce has an insufficient level of digital skills
16% of Europeans have never used the internet

I-LINC
In 2017, all campaign partners and stakeholders will use the I-LINC platform to share, connect and learn from each other. I-LINC is a stakeholder platform on digital skills towards employability and entrepreneurship, that will host Get Online Week updates and interactions.

Stay tuned for more updates! For more details on how to get involved or support the campaign please contact us at gow@telecentre-europe.org

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GOW 2016 report is out! Over 12,000 unemployed and 79,000 young people involved

May 18, 2016

This year Telecentre Europe’s flagship campaign Get Online Week reached 122,000 Europeans across 27 countries. From all those involved in campaign activities, around 79,000 were young people and 12,000 were unemployed. A record number of 29 campaign partners organised more than 5,100 various activities and promoted the campaign in their countries.

Have a look at the final report online:

Click here to download the PDF report!

Click here to view the wrap up infographic!

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Get Online Week: A concept to be adapted in the U.S.

April 7, 2016

Just a few days after the seventh edition of the European Get Online Week, the campaign has been featured by an independent research and policy institution Brookings from the U.S. In his article Stuart N. Brotman argues that the U.S. should follow Europe’s lead to create their American Get Online Week.

A piece titled Why the U.S. needs its own Get Online Week presents the success of this year’s campaign in some European countries and calls on paying more attention to digital issues in the U.S.

Given the common set of digital use issues on both sides of the Atlantic, the U.S. has much to learn from what is now an extensive track record of success for Get Online Week, says Stuart N. Brotman.

The author thinks that the campaign model which promotes public-private partnerships should be adapted by states and metropolitan areas in his home country. Stuart N. Brotman points out that today when we speak about digital gap, we speak about the gap in digital literacy, skills, and trust. Hence, it is crucial to start local conversations about the possibilities of the Internet and tech, but also cyber threats. An initiative such as the Get Online Week could be the occasion and the means to do that.

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Why the U.S. needs its own Get Online Week by Stuart N. Brotman, on 31 May. Published in Brookings under TechTank, a section that focuses on new developments in science and technology policy and how they affect health care, education, economic development, innovation, and governance.

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European Get Online Week 2016: being confident, being digital

March 23, 2016

The seventh edition of the European Get Online Week (GOW) to digitally empower and employ people was celebrated on 14-20 March this year. With a record number of 29 campaign partners involved in 27 countries, the campaign proved again the necessity to raise awareness about ICT competence and the importance to see every European digitally savvy. Cisco and Liberty Global financially supported the campaign which was also endorsed by some of the European Commissioners.

Supported by tech companies and endorsed by the European Commission

The Digital Champion of the Netherlands Tineke Netelenbos said that “the Get Online Week is an excellent moment in Europe to collectively pay attention to enhancing eSkills”.

Digital Champion of the Netherlands Tineke Netelenbos
Photo credits: Frank van Beek

The week-long initiative is organised by Telecentre Europe and its members every March since 2010. The Get Online Week was a major milestone of the eSkills for Jobs campaign from the European Commission. The new partnership with Cisco supported the national partners to tackle digital inclusion by teaching local communities basic IT knowledge using Networking Academy courses (www.netacad.com). Liberty Global has committed to supporting GOW and has been doing so each year since 2011, while Microsoft helped a part of national partners in local activities.

The European Commission increased support by endorsing the campaign on communication channels like blogs or social networks. European Commission’s Vice-President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip hosted a blogpost of Māra Jākobsone, chair of Telecentre Europe, on his official blog. “Europeans need the right skills to take part in the digital economy and get the full benefits from the Digital Single Market that we are building,” A. Ansip said in the blogpost. During the campaign launch event in Amsterdam on 4 March, Alexander Riedl, Deputy Head of Unit from DG Connect, emphasized the fact that the Commission has been partnering with Telecentre Europe to reach out to 100 million Europeans who still have no or very limited digital skills.

Events on trust and confidence online

As trust and confidence on the internet is becoming a more complex and hard to address issue, the campaign partners organised events to educate people about cyber-security, online identities, e-commerce, social media, and ICT tools to become confident Internet users.

Sundsvall municipality invited citizens to the E-service Fair to inform about available public services online. Photo: Sambruk

Lithuanian partner Association Langas į Ateitį invited citizens to learn more about secure banking solutions and data privacy. Kids were given seminars on how to safely use the Internet. In Macedonia Open the Windows, in cooperation with the Directorate for Personal Data Protection, hosted a workshop in a high school where students were asked to formulate key recommendations for Internet safety.

In some Danish IT cafes senior age IT volunteers were teaching other hundred elderly people about e-commerce and the Internet safety. GOW partner in Latvia LIKTA organised a debate with ICT security experts from public, private and NGO sectors on the topic of security in digital world. E-service Fair took place in Sundsvall (Sweden) to inform citizens about different e-services the municipality has to offer.

Empowering young and unemployed

Europeans need the right skills to get the most out of the digital economy and digital single market. Thousands of events were organised to raise awareness about the skills gap and related employment opportunities.

Kids attending the RomeCup event on educational robotics in Rome. Photo: Fondazione Mondo Digitale

Italian partners focused their efforts on training young people ICT and coding. In Parma in an event organised by ERVET students met and talked to digital experts such as digital content specialist, data analyst and food photographer who were promoting today’s ICT career possibilities. The first National Robotic Olympic Games were organised by Fondazione Mondo Digitale in Rome.

In Croatia Telecentar run a number of workshops on multimedia literacy and roundtable discussions to figure out how to boost young people’s employability. Web development course was organised for high school students by IAN Telecentre in Belgrade, among other events. Albanian Institute of Science introduced Skillage (www.skillage.eu/) and YouRock (http://yourock.jobs/) to young Albanians in high schools.

Campaign activities for young and unemployed in Portugal. Photo: Programa Escolhas

Spanish people in several regions joined workshops to learn about job search online and how to gain necessary skills for the job market. Spanish Association of Telecentre Networks held its 15^th meeting of Telecentres featuring discussions on existing ICT initiatives and projects boosting employability and recently approved Digital Agenda of Galicia 2020.

Digital inclusion activities to teach basic ICT

Roma women followed 1 one-week workshop on digital storytelling in Brussels

Roma women followed one-week workshop on digital storytelling in Brussels. Photo: Maks vzw

A hundred million Europeans are still offline, therefore in some European countries digital inclusion is still very important. This is why Get Online Week continues to reach out to communities where internet is still a privilege.

Foundation EOS Romania organized a dedicated GOW campaign launch in Timișoara to draw attention to the opportunities and benefits of online learning and the importance of internet access for all. Brussels-based non-profit Maks vzw involved Roma origin women in a one-week workshop to learn digital storytelling as a means to speak about their housing and work problems as well as violence against women and social exclusion. In Lisbon a group of seniors took their first steps to use Skype. This session aimed to show the elderly a new way to connect with the world and stay in touch with their relatives faraway.

GOW 2016 on social media

#GOW16 has been (maybe more than ever) one of the trending topics on Twitter and Facebook in Europe, with endorsements from two vice-presidents of the Commission (Andrus Ansip and Kristalina Georgieva), Commissioner Günther Oettinger, DG Connect, Digital Champion of Netherlands, ICT industry, EURES, EPALE and other European organisations. Almost 1,400 total tweets were sent out reaching to an estimate 3 million. Telecentre Europe’s messages on Facebook reached more than 5,100 people and resulted in over 12,200 impressions just in one week.

Check Storify to see the highlights of conversations on Twitter!

Check publications about GOW 2016:

Note: Telecentre Europe is currently collecting data from its partners about the number of events and participants and will announce figures in the following weeks.

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Everyone’s online: A preview of Get Online Week 2016!

March 17, 2016

Get Online Week 2016 is in action: with a record number of countries and partners being involved thousands of events on digital skills, inclusion and jobs are taking place across Europe. As the Netherlands Digital Champion Tineke Netelenbos put it today, “…the Get Online Week is an excellent moment in Europe to collectively pay attention to enhancing eSkills”. Here’s an early preview of what has been going on in many countries in the first days of the campaign!

Albania

High schools from different districts of Albania are involved in this year’s Get Online Week campaign. Platforms such as Hp Life, Skillage and YouRock as well as social media networks were presented to students in the light of getting ready for digital jobs.

Belgium

8 Roma women are following 1 week workshop on digital storytelling organised by our Belgian member Maks vzw. Their stories are about social exclusion, violence against women, housing and work. The stories will be turned into video stories at the end of the campaign.

Croatia

Get Online Week coordinated by Telecentar in Croatia focused on roundtable discussions how to boost young people’s employability and skills through social projects in media literacy. The campaign will be used to launch a national survey on computer programming and coding as a key competence, in preparation for the implementation of the new school curriculum in Croatia.

Czech Republic

This week 30 Czech students “coded their future” for the first time at a coding workshop organised in the context of Code Your Future campaign sponsored by Microsoft. Students learnt how to create their first game using TouchDevelop and Kodu. It’s a great addition to ‪‎GOW16 events!

Germany

Smart Hero Award is a competition organised by our German member Stiftung Digitale Chancen and Facebook. Cucula – Refugees Company for Crafts and Design has been selected as a social design initiative to improve the situation of refugees in Germany. Young people with refugee status can learn craft skills in various design areas – especially in installation and furniture design – whilst also learning German and basic academic skills. In Dortmund the campaign is being coordinated by a group of students studying rehabilitation science at University of Dortmund. Various workshops are being run for vulnerable groups of the region.

Italy

In Foligno GOW activities have started with a Skillage.eu session for a group of high-school students organised by our member Associazione Centro Studi Città di Foligno. Ervet in Parma (Emilia Romagna) invited students at Istituto tecnico economico Melloni to meet temporary manager, digital content specialist, data analyst and food photographer – all new digital professions. The 3 day RomeCup 2016 with 30 workshops and labs on Educational Robotics addressed to young people takes place each year as part of European GOW. This year also the 1st National Robotic Olimpic Games will be promoted by the Ministry of Education and Research in collaboration with Fondazione Mondo Digitale.

Latvia

More than 300 libraries in Latvia organized events during ‎GOW16 to engage both young and senior people. The Latvian President, two Ministers, LIKTA President and some representatives of leading ICT companies attended the official opening of the campaign which was broadcast online and the media event took to the TV tower. ICT security experts from public, private and NGO sectors were invited to debate on the topic of security in digital world.

Lithuania

Lithuanian partner Association Langas į Ateitį invited citizens to learn more about secure banking and finances online. Kids got a chance to learn how to safely use the Internet while youngsters were creating their digital resumes on YouRock.jobs.

Macedonia

On March 14, Open the Windows (OtW) in cooperation with the Directorate for Personal Data Protection, held an inclusive workshop on Internet safety. The workshop was hosted by Nikola Karev high school. Students from three other high schools and the users of the Center for Assistive Technology attended the workshop to formulate key recommendations for Internet safety. OtW also held a conference “ICT and employment: necessity and opportunities” to draw attention to the demand of ICT professionals. This year Open the Windows is celebrating 10 years anniversary (video).

Portugal

In one Lisbon community a group of seniors took their first steps in using Skype. This session aimed to show the elderly a new way to connect with the world and stay in touch with their relatives faraway. In Portugal GOW this year is being promoted by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia and Programas Escolhas.

Romania

Foundation EOS Romania organized a dedicated Get Online Week campaign launch in Timișoara on March 10. Invited speakers talked about the opportunities and benefits of online learning and the importance of a universal access for all to ICT and the internet. A workshop followed to present an introductory course of Training the e-Trainers dedicated to telecentre trainers, library coordinators or teachers. The second event was the Web Accessibility Awards Gala, where EOS with other partners celebrated the accessibility efforts by public institutions to make their public information accessible to all citizens, including the blind. Over 50 participants enjoyed a day full of good and insightful presentations about the state of digital inclusion in Romania.

Serbia

Web development course was organised for high school students by IAN Telecentre. Best websites will be selected by the jury at the end of the campaign week!

Sweden

E-service Fair took place in Sundsvall to inform citizens about different e-services the municipality has to offer. Local public transportation company, a pharmacy, The Swedish Consumer Agency, a city library, Swedbank, audio book service provider and Health Care Guide all joined the fair.

More GOW updates can be found on our Facebook page and Twitter and Unite-IT e-Inclusion platform. Follow the campaign this week using #GOW16!

For remaining activities in partner countries, please check ‘In Your Country’ section.

Check other interesting publications on GOW 2016:

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GOW 2016 launch in Amsterdam: Digital skills is a foundation but it doesn’t end there

March 8, 2016

Last week on 4 March an official launch event was held in Amsterdam to mark the start of the seventh European Get Online Week. Invited guest speakers from the European Commission and the industry shared their views on the progress and solutions of empowering Europeans with digital skills.

Mara Jakobsone, Chair of Telecentre Europe, opened the event by reflecting on her organisation’s LIKTA in Latvia commitment and contributions since the very first year in 2010.

Alexander Riedl (Deputy Head of Unit, DG Connect) from the European Commission joined the event via Skype. ‘It is surprising that in 2016 still 100 million Europeans have no or very limited digital skills,’ said A. Riedl. ‘Therefore Telecentre Europe has been a long-standing partner. The Commission has been spelling the gospel on how important digital skills are for the last few years. Neelie Kroes launched the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs; we have eSkills for Jobs to which Get Online Week contributes. We have also made sure that our funding programs such as the European Social Fund or Erasmus+ make digital skills a priority. This year the Commission will present a new Skills Agenda and digital skills will be an important part of its plan.’

Alexander Riedl from the European Commission

A. Riedl also encouraged stakeholders to take action on the local level: ‘This is why Get Online Week is so important because this campaign achieves it. So every telecentre, every public library, every school, every co-working space should become a learning space for digital skills.’

This year’s campaign supporters Liberty Global and Cisco talked about why digital skills and inclusion is so important for the ICT industry. Piotr Pluta, Cisco Director Corporate Affairs EMEA, emphasized the new collaboration through Networking Academy (www.netacad.com) that will allow Telecentre partners to offer online learning courses on basic IT skills.

Piotr Pluta from Cisco
Photo credits: Frank van Beek

Roy Sharon, Director CSR Liberty Global, presented how digital imagination could be the new approach to engage people in learning digital skills but also contributing with their knowledge to collective solutions and making social impact. ‘We also look at the ways how to make it exciting for young people to get involved and upscale and upskill their digital knowledge.’ R. Sharon continued: ‘For us it starts with skills as this is the foundation but it doesn’t end there. We give entrepreneurs the ability, the know-how, the platform to use those digital skills to address societal issues.’

Roy Sharon (Director CSR) from Liberty Global
Photo credits: Frank van Beek

The Digital Champion of the Netherlands Tineke Netelenbos talked about activities in the country within the context of GOW. ‘Make IT Work’ is this year’s motto to motivate all those with basic ICT skills to practice their skills and learn new. So called Digital Aid Centres aim to provide digital training in over 500 locations during the week of 14-20 March.

Digital Champion of the Netherlands Tineke Netelenbos
Photo credits: Frank van Beek

All information on activities is also published online (www.digitaalhulpplein.nl). Helpline will be available for those who do not have sufficient digital skills and prefer to get information via phone. ‘What we see is that people think they are digitally skilled. But at the end of the day they don’t have all the skills they need. During the Get Online Week 3 million Dutch households can be activated by ‘Make IT Work’ campaign,’ concluded Tineke Netelenbos.

At the end of the launch event Tineke Netelenbos handed over a Dutch advertorial to TE’s Chair Mara Jakobsone as a symbol of the GOW campaign in the Netherlands. GOW 2016 will be running from 14 to 20 March in at least 23 countries. Trust and confidence together with skills for digital jobs is at the core of this year’s campaign coordinated by Telecentre Europe with its 28 members.

Mara Jakobsone and Tineke Netelenbos
Photo credits: Frank van Beek

More photos of the event are available on Telecentre Europe’s Flickr account.

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